FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, March 6, 2012
CONTACT: Rafael Noboa y Rivera, raf@fitzgibbonmedia.com, (202) 455-4673

Progressive Groups Gather More Than 650,000 Signatures Demanding Limbaugh Advertisers Pull Support For Show

CREDO ACTION, Ultraviolet and Daily Kos To Deliver Petitions To Advertisers In Coming Days

San Francisco, CA -- Following Rush Limbaugh’s offensive verbal assault on Georgetown Law Student, Sandra Fluke, progressive groups CREDO Action, Ultraviolet and Daily Kos today announced that they have collected more than 650,000 signatures on petitions demanding that Limbaugh’s advertisers pull their support for this show. Many of the signatures came after Limbaugh attempted to damage control over the weekend with his unacceptable so-called apology.

The groups plan to deliver the petitions to advertisers in the coming days.

"Rush Limbaugh has a long history of hateful and misogynist rhetoric," said Becky Bond, political director of CREDO Action. "But with his comments this week, Rush Limbaugh has crossed the line at a moment when women, and the men who believe in equal rights for women, are more organized than ever and are ready to fight back."

"Rush Limbaugh attacked a young woman 53 separate times over a period of three days by using some of the most hateful and offensive language imaginable,” said Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of UltraViolet “Abusive language aimed at women is unacceptable--that's why 20 companies have stopped advertising on his show. And our members are committed to making sure others follow suit."

“For three days, Rush Limbaugh used his radio show to viciously attack Sandra Fluke for daring to say all women should receive basic health care,” said Kaili Joy Gray, associate editor at Daily Kos. “Because of thousands of online activists, many sponsors, and even two local radio stations that carried Limbaugh's show, have decided to send Rush and Republicans who stand with him a message by cutting their support. Even though he was forced to issue a non-apology apology, he is still using his show to attack women's health care. His remaining sponsors need to ask themselves, "Who do we stand with? Millions of American women or Rush Limbaugh?"”

CREDO Action's petition can be seen here: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/limbaugh_appalling/. Ultraviolet's petition can be seen here: http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/rushads/. And Daily Kos' petition can be seen here: http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=84.

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CREDO Action has 2.75 million members across the U.S. who fight for progressive change and equal rights for women and girls. Since 1985, CREDO and its membership have donated over $70 million to progressive causes including Planned Parenthood, the Ms Foundation for Women, and Room to Read for Girls Education.

UltraViolet is an online community of women and men who want to take collective action to expose and fight sexism in the public sector, private sector and the media.


Daily Kos is a news organization, online community, and activist hub. Among luminaries writing on the site are President Jimmy Carter and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. More exciting than that are the regular Americans who have used Daily Kos to shape a political world once the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful.

For Immediate Release:
March 5, 2012

Contact: Blair Fitzgibbon
202-503-6141

More than 10,000 GM Owners Demand Company Pull Its Support from Heartland Institute

Over 20,000 Join Campaign against GM Hypocrisy on Climate Change

http://forecastthefacts.org/stories/gm_heartland/

San Francisco, CA – More than 10,000 current and former owners of General Motors vehicles are calling on the company to pull its financial support from the Heartland Institute, a leader in efforts to deny the science behind climate change. The campaign coordinated by Forecast the Facts comes in response to leaked documents that revealed a host of major corporations funding Heartland.

“Supporting the Heartland Institute stands in direct contradiction to GM’s public stance on climate change and its effort to reinvent itself around cars like the ChevyVolt,” said Daniel Souweine, Forecast the Facts campaign director. “When taxpayers bailed out GM, this is not where they were expecting their money to go.”

Heartland has long been a key cog in the climate change denial machine. They hold a regular conference of leading climate change deniers, publish reports questioning the broad scientific consensus, and provide direct funding to prominent deniers. The leaked documents also unveil their intention to insert climatechange denial into American classrooms through curricula that positions climate change as “a major scientific controversy." Prior to their climate change work, Heartland worked closely with tobacco company Phillip Morris to question links between secondhand smoke and cancer.

The petition drive around GM began two weeks ago, immediately after the leaked documents were published. On Wednesday, Forecast the Facts sent the first 20,000 signatures to General Motors CEO Daniel Akerson and has also posted selected comments from GM owners online here: http://forecastthefacts.org/stories/gm_heartland/. General Motors has yet to respond, but a spokesman did previously defend their support of Heartland, saying: “We support a variety or organizations that give careful and considerate thought to complex policy issues and Heartland is one of them."

The comments from GM owners reflect both their deep affinity for the company and their intense frustration that GM would provide support to a group like Heartland. For example, John C. of Ballston Spa, NY had this to say upon signing the petition: “I have been a Chevy fan from a very young age. I am now 61. My parents bought only Chevys and it has been my usual car of choice. I own a classic 74 Camaro LT. However your donation to the Heartland Institute, with its anti-science, pro-oil stance, has me angry. Change yourpolicy or I will never buy another GM auto.”

In the coming weeks, Forecast the Facts will use a host of online and offline tactics to ensure that GM is well aware of the customer frustration their support of Heartland has caused.

The progressive communications firm FitzGibbon Media has hired Doug Gordon as a principal and managing director of its East Coast operations. Gordon is joining FitzGibbon from Fenton Communications, where he was a senior vice president and oversaw its Washington office. He's a veteran of Democratic politics.

http://influencealley.nationaljournal.com/2012/02/gordon-joins-fitzgibbon-media.php